Ebook: The Life, Music and Times of Carlos Gardel

Carlos Gardel (1890-1935) holds a unique place in the popular culture of Latin America. From very modest beginnings he rose to become the first genuine “superstar” of twentieth-century Latin America. In his late teens he won local fame in the barrios of Buenos Aires, singing in cafes and political clubs. In the 1910s, in collaboration with José Razzano, he formed part of the most celebrated singing duo of its time in Argentina and Uruguay, specializing in folk music. But it was in the 1920s, after he switched to tango singing, that his genius became apparent. The tango was then at the height of its popularity; the tango songs that Gardel wrote and sang have become classics of the genre. The magic of his singing—on records, on the radio, and in theaters—earned him an immense following in Argentina, and he made triumphant appearances in cabarets and theaters in Barcelona, Madrid, and Paris.

He began making movies in the early 1930s, quickly establishing himself as the most popular star of the Spanish-language cinema. His films were shot in Paris and New York, and at the time of his death, Paramount was planning to take him to Hollywood and launch him as a major star of the English-language screen.

Gardel was regarded, in his own time, as a strangely symbolic personality, reflecting the urban culture of Buenos Aires. His memory later became the focus of an intense popular cult which is still in evidence today. On the fiftieth anniversary of Carlos Gardel’s death, in June 1985, the Argentine Congress opened each evening session, throughout the month, with one of his songs; a commemorative postage stamp was issued; and Raúl Alfonsin, president of Argentina, attended a special function in his honor.

This biography is the first in English, and arguably the first fully rounded study of Gardel in any language. It is based on Argentine materials and on additional findings from North American and European sources. It focuses principally on Gardel’s artistic career and achievements, but also tries to evaluate the evidence concerning his private life, and it sets his story in the context of the tango tradition, of early twentieth-century Argentina, and of the history of popular entertainment.

Simon Collier is Reader in History at the University of Essex, England. He is the author of Ideas and Politics of Chilean Independence, 1808-1833 (1967) and a coeditor of The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Latin America and the Caribbean (1985).